I have made ftrong proof of my constancy,

Giving myself a voluntary wound

Here, in the thigh: Can I bear that with patience,

And not my husband's fecrets?

Bru. O ye gods,

Render me worthy of this noble wife!

[Knock within.

Hark, hark! one knocks: Portia, go in a while;

And by and by thy bosom shall partake

The fecrets of my heart;

All my engagements I will conftrue to thee,

All the charactery of my fad brows.

Leave me with hafte.

Lucius,

[Exit Portia.

Enter Lucius and Ligarius.

who's that knocks?

Luc. Here is a fick man that would fpeak with you.

Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.—

Boy, ftand afide.- [Exit Luc.] Caius Ligarius, how?
Lig. Vouchlafe good morrow from a feeble tongue.
Bru. O what a time have you chofe out, brave Caius,
To wear a kerchief? Would you were not fick !

Lig. I am not fick, if Brutus have in hand

Any exploit worthy the name of honour.
Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius,

Had 1
you a healthful ear to hear of it.

k

Lig. By all the gods that Romans bow before, I here difcard my fick nefs. Soul of Rome,

So the fo's and R; P. reads wobo's \ thero sbat knocks followed by all till C. who reade zubo's that that knocks ? This direction first put in by C.

iSo the three first fo's and C; the rest, an for a.

that.

So the fo's and C; the reft, the for

Brave

Brave fon, deriv'd from honourable loins,
Thou, like an exorcift, haft conjur'd up

My mortified fpirit. Now bid me run,
And, I will ftrive with things impoffible;
Yea, get the better of them. What's to do?

!

Bru. A piece of work, that will make fick men whole. Lig. But are not fome whole, that we must make sick? Bru. That must we also. What it is, my Caius, I fhall unfold to thee, as we are going, To whom it must be done.

Lig. Set on your foot;

And with a heart new fir'd, I follow you,
To do I know not what: but it fufficeth,
That Brutus leads me on. "

Bru. Follow me then.

Exeunt.

Thunder and lightning. Enter Julius Cæfar in his night-gown..

Caf. Nor heaven, nor earth, have been at peace to-night: Thrice hath Calphurnia in her fleep -y'd out,

Help, ho! they murder Cafar.

Who's within?

1 R. and P. Tet for Yea.

m T.'s duodecimo, W. and J. we muß for muft we.

A Here the fo's and R. direct Thunder.

• This Scene II. in R. and C. P No defcription of the fcene in the fo's.

So the fo's and R; the reft omit in bis night-gown.

Enter

Ser. My lord?

"Enter a Servant.

Caf. Go bid the priests do prefent facrifice, And bring me their opinions of fuccefs.

Ser. I will, my lord.

Enter Calphurnia.

[Exit Servant.

Cal. What mean you, Cæfar? Think you to walk forth? You shall not stir out of your house to-day.

Caf. Cæfar fhall forth: the things that threaten'd me
Ne'er lookt but on my back; when they fhall fee
The face of Cæfar, they are vanifhed.

Cal. Cafar, I never stood on ceremonies :
Yet now they fright me. There is one within,¦
Befides the things that we have heard and feen,
Recounts moft horrid fights feen by the watch.
A lionefs hath whelped in the ftreets;

And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead:
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
In ranks, and squadrons, and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the capitol :

The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horfes did neigh, and dying men did groan;

And ghofts did shriek and fqucal about the streets.
OCæfar, these things are beyond all use ;

And I do fear them.

Caf. What can be avoided,

Whofe end is purpos'd by the mighty gods?

The three last fo's and R. burried for Burtled.

s The first f. do for did.

The fourth f. gbaft for ghofts.

Yet

Yet Cafar fhall go forth: for these predictions

Are to the world in general, as to Cafar.

Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets feen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. Caf. Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me moft ftrange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a neceffary end,

Will come, when it will corne.

Enter a Servant.

What say the augurers ?

Ser. They would not have you to ftir forth to-day.
Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,

They could not find a heart within the beast. *
Caf. The gods do this in fhame of cowardice:
Cafar fhould be a beast without a heart,
If he fhould ftay at home to-day for fear:
, No, Cafar fhall not: Danger knows full well,
That Cafar is more dangerous than he.

We are two lions, litter'd in one day,

And I the elder and more terrible;
And Cafar fhall go forth.

Cal.

u So the fo's, R. and C; the reft, aufor augurers.

gurs

w The fourth f. omits to.

z For are the Ift and ad fo's read beare; the 3d and 4th, bear; R. and P. in his margin, beard a T. H. in his mat

* Here T. W. and J. direct [Exit gin, W. and F. were. Are is Upton's Servant.

y This latter part of Cæfar's fpeech is omitted in P. and H.'s text, but preferved. in their margin.

emendation; and here I think it not improper to transcribe the passage in his Critical Obfervations where this emendation appears, as it contains an irrefraga

ble

Cal. Alas, my lord,

Your wisdom is confum'd in confidence.
Do not go forth to-day: call it my fear,
That keeps you in the house, and not your own.
We'll fend Mark Antony to the fenate-house;
And he fhall fay, you are not well to-day:
Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.

Caf. Mark Antony fhall fay, I am not well;
And for thy humour, I will ftay at home.
b Enter Decius.

Here's Decius Brutus, he fhall tell them fo.

Dec. Cæfar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Cafar: I come to fetch you to the fenate-house.

ble argument for minutenefs in an editor, and tends to a vindication of the method purfued in this prefent edition.

It may be proper, (fays he) in order to ascertain fome readings in our author, just to obferve, that in the reign of queen Elizabeth the fcholars wrote auncient, taulk, chaunce, &c. keeping to the broader manner of pronunciation; and added a letter often to the end of words, as funne, refleffe, &c. fometimes to give them a stronger tone as, doo, quee, mee, &c.—As trifling as these observations may appear, yet they are not to be too flightly paffed ! over by our critici There is a corrupted · paffage in Shakespeare, which may hence be more truly than hitherto corrected. In Julius Cæfar, Act II. the old writing was thus:

"Danger knows full well “That Cæfar is more dangerous than He.

"WEE ARE two lions, litter'd in one day,
"And I the elder and more terrible;
"And Cafar fhall go forth."
There was some stroke of the pen at the
end of the letter e, which made the prin-
ter mistake it for an b: fo he gave it us,
"WE HEARE two lions litter'd in one
"day."

Mr. Th. reads very ingeniously, “We
"WERE two lions, &c." But my read-
ing is nearer the traces of the original,
and the stopping gives a greater propriety
to the fentence. Befides, accuracy is of
the very effence of criticifm. Crit. Obf.
on Shakespeare, ad edit, p. 146.

C. reads after Upton.

a So the fo's and C; the reft, will for `shall.

In P. H. W. and 7. the fifth scene begins here at the entrance of Decius.

Cafe